Harsh school punishment policies plague students of color

School disciplinary practices make it even more daunting to graduate from high school in Long Beach, a place with one of the worst graduation rates in the state. But students here want to change the Long Beach Unified School District policy and reform the terms of its disciplinary code. “Willful defiance,” for example, is often trigger term for removing African American and Latino males from stressful classroom situations. An examination of this ongoing issue, and testimony of youth leader Edward Ward before the Judiciary Subcommittee (Hearing on the School-to-Prison pipeline), is on Voicewaves.